Recurring themes were also prevalent during the 90s conferences. Subjects included income inequality (1998) the national debt (1995!), and financial stability (1997).

The National Debt conference in 1995 one really underlines the fact that everything old is new again.

Speakers that year included Pete Peterson, the PE boss whose life work has been warning about the national debt, Jurgen Stark, the German economist who famously quit the ECB last year in a dispute about bond buying, and Mervyn King, then Chief Economist at the Bank of England.

The 2000s started off with hope [2001, "Economic Policy for the Information Economy"], before coming full circle back to the volatility theme: